


Behind Stone Walls

by wanderingstoryteller



Series: No one ever said this life would be simple [15]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alpha Doctor, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Bad Guys Made Them Do It, F/F, Harems, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Sexual Slavery, Threesome - F/F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-24 05:17:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingstoryteller/pseuds/wanderingstoryteller
Summary: The Doctor and her companions are given a mission to rescue an omega space pirate who's been captured by slavers and sold in the slave auctions of Kavu. They locate the omega in the harem of the empress of the small planet but very quickly get themselves captured and sold into that same harem. The omega is about to go into heat and the empress wants the Doctor to ease her through it.





	1. Delahaye Station

**Author's Note:**

> Update:  
> Hey folks. I don't usually start a new fic before I have finished the last one but I've hit some pretty bad writers block with the previous fic in this series, "Wibbily wobbly timey wimey.' I still plan of finishing the last fic but I thought that maybe working on another fic might help me get unstuck. 
> 
> Warnings and tags:  
> This is another darker fic about on the same level as "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea' and "Arena." It includes two scenes where the Doctor and Yaz are forced to have sex under threat of violence and another where the Doctor and an omega in heat are forced under similar circumstances. Although not explicitly shown, there are discussions of rape and abuse.

 

The Doctor had been thrilled to get a call from Mary Ann. She was slightly less thrilled to find out that the pirate was asking for help finding a missing crew member rather than making a booty call. To her credit she hid her disappointment well. The pirate was still very pleasant to look at on the TARDIS’s tiny video screen as she explained what had happened.

“Two years ago we left Amelie on Delahaye Station temporarily. Their systems engineer had just died and their life support was at risk of failing. It’s always been our home port and we couldn’t leave them in a lurch. We promised Amelie we’d be back for her.”

Delahaye Station was a notorious a pirate port of call as Tortuga ever was on old earth. The Doctor and her friends had even been there once in the course of another adventure. During their one night on the station. Shiva had stolen a pirate captain's hat, resulting in the Doctor having to win a sword fight against that same pirate captain with only a spoon to defend herself. The Doctor had made Shiva give the hat back and the pirate captain in question had offered to buy her a drink.

The moment they entered a bar, Ryan had managed to offend a completely different pirate but accidently bumping into him. This had led to that pirate challenging him to a drinking contest. When Ryan had began to loose, Graham had stepped in for his grandson and actually managed to drink that pirate under the table.

Yaz’s memory of the rest of the evening was still slightly hazy due to copiouse rum consumption but she was fairly certain that at one point she and the Doctor had danced on that same table.

Her pleasant reminiscences was shattered by what Mary Anne said next.     

“We were away longer than we ever meant to be, what with the start of the civil war on Tyco and everything. When we came back the entire station was a ghost town of rotting bodies. While we were gone it was attacked by slavers. We were able to track down and rescue most of the survivors who were sold to a commercial mining colony. We burned that place to the ground and have been going out of our way to attack that company’s ships ever since.”

“Good.” If there was one thing the Doctor hated it was slavers.

“There was no sign of Amelie though. We still haven’t been able to track down the slaver crew that attacked the station but we found one man from it. Under considerable duress he told us that the slavers put Amelie and a few of the more attractive residents of the station into cold sleep and sold them further afield where they could get a higher price for them.

“We were able to track Amelie all the way to Barataria Station where her cold sleep pod was bought by by a slave trader who then took her to a tiny backwater shithole planet called Kavu. It’s very loosely part of the Basilisk Empire and with the strength of their space fleet we don’t dare try and get closer, not with how voraciously they hunt pirates.”

“So you want me to hop over in my little blue box and search an entire planet for your crew member?”

“Yup. It shouldn’t be too hard, it is so far from Tyco, she’ll likely be the only omega there. Anyway, I’ll totally make it worth your while. I’m prepared to bribe you with sex, bad wine, or geisha bobble head dolls.”

“Bobble head dolls?” asked Yaz blinking at the screen.   

Mary Ann held up a brightly colored geisha bobble head doll, “We took like ten crates of them off a cargo ship thinking the crew was smuggling something in them. Apparently they were actually just smuggling the dolls themselves past some high manufactured goods tariff. Our usual buyers aren't interested in legal wares so we don’t know what to do with them.”

Yaz was about to suggest they would help under the condition that Mary Ann agreed to not give them any cheap wine or plastic toys but the Doctor beat her to the punch.

“Oh, I want one of those, it’s so cute.”

The pirate clapped her hands, “Perfect, you’ll help?”

“Of course. We’ll find your missing crew member.”

 

Finding one woman on a large desert planet proved much harder than expected. Kavu really was a backwater so small it only had a  single space port located in the planet’s capitol. It’s relation with the Basilisk empire basically consisted of trading with that empire and letting their ships occupy the space around the planet.

The planet’s population consisted of fairly standard human variants ruled over by an empress. The title was more ceremonial than anything else, as she only controlled the northern half of the planets only occupied continent. The lands and population she ruled over were not actually much larger than Twenty-First century Australia. The south of the continent remained divided between a number of warring tribes.

Their search led them to the to the capitals main slave auction. Through a series of ruses the Doctor managed to get into their main records office. While the planet kept slaves, offworld ones were rare and expensive, which fortunately meant that the auction houses office kept a specific file for them.

Unfortunately the Doctor learned that Amelie’s cold sleep pod had been sold to a procurer from the royal palace a year and a half ago. That made everything a lot more complicated, especially after she and the other’s scouted out the palace. While the planet’s base level of technology was fairly low, the empress at least seemed to have traded for some more advanced tech. There were all kinds of shields around the palace, ones even the TARDIS can’t get through.

It was during such reconnaissance that everything went wrong. The group had split up, the Doctor and Yaz searching one side of the palace’s parameter and Ryan and Graham the other. Yaz had just stepped around a corner when she heard the low hiss of a blaster charging. Rough hands grabbed her and she felt the heat of an undischarged weapon against the back of her neck.

The Doctor rounded the same corner, sonic in her hand. “Let her go!”

“Drop the device or I fry her,” threatened Yaz’s captor.

The device against her neck got hotter and she yelped involuntarily.

The Doctor dropped her screwdriver and someone stepped from the shadows to press a cloth against her face. Everything went dark.

 

She came to in a tiny dark stone room. Her wrists were chained to the wall and so were Yaz’s. Yaz was still asleep. When the Doctor heard approaching voices she feigned sleep as well. A panel slid back on the heavy metal door, briefly flooding the small room with light. She heard two male voices.

“Are you sure the blond one’s an alpha?”

“That’s what the scanner said. Viti tech is seldom wrong.”

“And you think the empress’s procuress will really buy her unprocessed and unbroken?”

“And unfucked.”

“There is no way a woman that age is a virgin.”

“No, but the empress’s procuress won’t buy any woman who’s been violated by the guards. If we leave these two overnight, as attractive as they are, half of the night watchmen  will have had them by morning. I know it is late in the day but we need to take them to the palace now.”

“Fine, I’ll arrange the transport but if the majordomor doesn’t buy them, the cost of all of this is coming out of your cut when they go to auction.

 

Within an hour, after a ride in a windowless ground transport, a cold eyed man was leading them both with bound hands through a back door of the palace and down a dim hallway to what was likely a combined office and records room. The Doctor had quietly convinced Yaz that they should play along and wait for the right opportunity before they tried to escape. In truth, after what she’d just heard, the Doctor’s first priority was getting them out of the auction house.

A bored middle aged woman, with the the look of a majordomo about her, barely bothered to look up from the ledger she was scratching in.

“What did you bring me this time you old sewer rat?”

The slave trader bowed very deeply. “Two very rare acquisitions I just purchased in the spaceport. It didn’t seem right to take them to the open market without first offering them to the empress”

“All I’m seeing are a blond human variant already past the flush of youth and a brunette human variant with a pretty face but angry eyes. I’ve no use for either.”

“The blond one’s an alpha.”

The majordomo did actually set down her pen. “Keep talking.”

The snake like little man saw his opening. “The empress is still looking for a female alpha isn’t she? She wants one to ease the heats of that little Tycan omega who’s her favorite right?

“You seem to know a lot of gossip.”

“I merely try to anticipate my customers needs.”

She left her desk to move closer, walking in a slow circle around them all.  “Your sources are not as good as you think they are. We found a female alpha months ago. She bonded with the omega a bit too successfully. The empress became jealous and had her gotten rid of.”

“These two are exactly what you are looking for then. The alpha’s pair bonded to the younger woman. She won’t get overly attached to the omega, even when she mates her.”

The majordomo still looked dubious, “I’ll consider buying the alpha if you throw in her mate for free, but I’m not paying extra for a woman I otherwise have no use for.”

The slave trader looked offended, “You cannot seriously be asking me to just give you the girl. She’s young and pretty enough to sell for a fair price on the open market.”

“I’m sure she would but the harem already has more pretty young human variants than the empress will ever get around to fucking. There’s no need for another one, especially with such a defiant look.”

“That can be beaten out of her.”

“And it will. Now let’s discuss a reasonable price for the alpha.”

The actual negotiating only took a few minutes and then the man left. The Doctor and Yaz were left standing with the woman in the small room. There were still two armed guards by the door.

The majordomo returned to her desk, her attention already starting to drift back towards her ledger.

“Are you two even mated or was he just trying to offload the brunet?” It was the first time she had spoke to them directly.

“We are,” said the Doctor, a subtle threat hiding behind her tone.

The woman nodded, “Are you going to be all protective of her the way the last alpha was over the empress’s omega? I’ll warn you now, the guards won’t take it well if you growl at them for just getting near her.”

“I can control myself,” said the Doctor through gritted teeth.

The majordomo raised an eyebrow. “You certainly don’t control your face very well, you’d best learn quickly if you want to last very long in the inner chambers. Same goes for your mate, she’d be much prettier if she scowled less.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Yaz.

“Not been a slave long, have you?”

“No.” replied the Doctor.

“Hm, I really ought to send you to be properly trained and broken. If you go the way of the last alpha though, that will just prove a waste of time and money. Please try not to cause the empress to have you executed on your first night alright? You weren’t cheap.”

“I don’t really know or care who you used to be but the two of you are now the newest and lowest ranking slaves in the private harem of the Great Empress of Kavu. Someone else will more fully explain the rules to you, but it all boils down to not trying to escape and doing what the guards tell you. Don’t start any fights or drama within the harem. You’re allowed to fuck other women in the harem, if they are willing, but not the guards. If a guard touches you, tell one of my enforcers and I will personally deal with it.”

That said she motioned at the guards. “Have them checked over and cleaned up, then take them to the harem.Tell Mita she’s in charge of getting them settled in, she’s usually pretty good at keeping new girls from doing anything stupid.”

 

Getting checked over mostly meant being stripped and poked at by a disinterested healer. After that, in spite of the Doctor’s protests that they didn’t have lice or fleas or anything else, she and Yaz both ended up scrubbed within an inch of their lives in a large tub by two very gruff washerwomen.  

They were given some generic loose silk like clothing and hustled through a series of locked gates. The Doctor took note that the guards at the last set of gates were all women. They also tended be to an unsettling combination of bored and flinty eyed which gave her little hope of just convincing one to let them go.

After the final gate they were ushered into a huge a large open air courtyard worthy of the Alhambra. There was a huge central pool and a mix of tiled and grassy space. Beautifully carved columns held up colonnade that ringed the courtyard. It may well have actually be an exact copy of a room from the Alhambra as the courtyards architects was so completely different than the considerably more practical  baked clay and stone of the rest of the capital city.

The courtyard was full of women, ranging from youth to early middle age. They were all on the attractive side, although in a variety of ways. Some tended more towards the flowing hair and angelic faces of Waterhouse painting while others had the more athletic look of women from the planet’s southern tribes.

Most had the pale skin and straight brunette hair of the majority of the planets inhabitants but the Doctor still noticed a few blonds as well as women with darker hair and skin, likely offworlders like her and Yaz. She didn’t see anyone who wasn’t a human variant.

Clothing tended to be of the silk or light cotton variety. The more Waterhouse esc women tended towards lose silk dresses or skirts with blouses. They also seemed to be more interested in playing harp like instruments, reading, or swimming in the large pool.

The more warrior looking sorts tended towards dark trousers and more tightly worn chest wraps or shirts that bared lean stomachs. Most of them were practicing some for of hand to hand combat in a corner of the courtyard laid down with sparring matts. Something about several of the women, especially their scars, made the Doctor suspect they were likely captured enemies of the empress from the still rebellious tribes in the south.

Everyone paused and stared at the two newcomers when they entered. Not knowing what else to do the Doctor smiled and waved.

“Hi, I’m the Doctor this is Yaz.”

This apparently wasn’t what new members of the harem usually did because that got them a lot of raised eyebrows.

One of the guards called over a woman who had been sitting beside the pool reading a book. She wore a brilliantly dyed multi colored silk dress and had her sleek chestnut hair long about her shoulders.

The smile she offered Yaz and the Doctor was a kind one, “Hi, I’m Mita. I guess I’ll be showing you around.”

The guards took this as their cue to consider their job done and depart.

Mita sniffed the air, “They used that wretched delousing shampoo on you two didn’t they? Our first stop needs to be the baths, you want to wash that off properly before it starts to burn.”

She led them through a series of stone hallways to a huge domed room full of warm steam. There was a large pool of water, as well as a series of smaller basins off to one side. A few women were lounging about. They stared as hard as the women in the atrium had.

Without a shred of modesty, Mita tugged her dress over her head and dumped it in a basket by the wall. “Come on.”

They shed their own clothes. Mita collected a series of bottles from a shelf and led them to the pool of warm water and stepped down into it to sit on a low bench. As stressful as the entire situation was Yaz couldn’t help but notice just how attractive the woman was. She was likely in her late twenties and very slender, although there was a pleasing curve to both her breasts and ass.

Yaz must have stared too long because Mita caught her and smirked. The look she gave Yaz was not unappreciative. Yaz blushed and quickly took a seat on the stone bench. The water was pleasantly warm and came up to her hip. She was actually very glad to get the chance to bathe properly, her skin and hair had started to itch from whatever the washerwomen had used on her.

“Want me to wash your hair for you?” offered Mita holding up a green bottle.

“Um,” Yaz felt her face grow hotter.

The Doctor saved her by taking the bottle.“I’ll do it.”

Mita tilted her head slightly and then shrugged. She began to wash her own hair, first pouring water over her head with a bowl and then scrubbing industriously.  

“You’ll have to forgive everyone for giving you the once over. There hasn’t been a new off worlder brought here in awhile. The last one was that Tycan alpha girl and that didn’t end well. You are offworlder’s aren't you?”

“Yes.” said the Doctor. She copied Mita’s process and began to work the sweet smelling shampoo into Yaz’s hair.

“Sold as slaves from the spaceport i’m guessing.”

“More like snatched off the streets.”

Her face softened, “Shit, that is supposed to be illegal. Not that it’s ever enforced, but when I was still on the privy council, I got the empress to pass a law against it.”

“I’m guessing you're not on the council anymore,” said Yaz.

“Nah, thanks to a series of miscalculations I’m as trapped here as you two. Back when I was an advisor to the empress I thought I could raise my status by seducing her. It worked, at least it got me a seat on the privy council. She lost interest in me after a bit so I thought it would be fine for me to take a new lover. The next thing I knew she’d executed the poor woman I’d dared fall in love with and chucked me in here. Apparently she doesn’t like to share, even when she’s done with a woman.”

She poured another bowl of water over her head. “It’s funny really, I’ve bedded more women in here out of boredom than I ever did while free but the empress doesn’t care if it is another woman she owns, at least most of the time. She can get a little weird about favorites.”

When they were finished bathing, Mita showed them where they could get clean clothes from a cabinet in the next room. Yaz put on one of the silk dresses, it seemed the best way to handle the hot dry air. The Doctor opted for dark cotton trousers and a linen shirt. The only shoes were flat cloth slippers.

Mita mistook their vague confusion with the unfamiliar garments as displeasure in them. “I’m sorry. I know these must seem very simple to you, especially as you were free born. A seamstress comes once a month and you can commission things. You’ll need money though. Only favorites get an allowance, that and women who were of noble blood before they came here.”

She paused for a moment looking almost embarrassed, “The empress mostly ignores me but since I’m from an old aristocratic family, I get a small stipend and a room the size of a shoebox. Come by sometime and I can give you both some older clothes I’ve tired of.

Although her words might have been easily misconstrued as a come on, in this case they weren’t. The offer was apparently made in kindness and there was no sign of her earlier flirtatious smile.

Yaz had little interest in clothes but she knew an offer of friendship when she heard one.

“Yea, that would be good. Thank you.”

Next Mita showed them where they would sleep. They did not apparently rank a room of their own, but instead got a small curtained bed in an almost dormitory like room with about ten such beds.  

The evening meal was at a series of low tables in the main courtyard and consisted of mostly of rice, meat, currants and a few other forms of nuts and fruit. There was a strong clear liquor that the Doctor warned Yaz to be careful with.

Although the other women were clearly curious about them none other than Mita openly asked how they had come to be in the harem.They did however seem to view them a potential source of amusement or at least new company.

During the course of the meal  the Doctor and Yaz received invitations to train with the women who sparred, learn to play a lute like instrument with a group that practiced every morning, join a reading group, attend yoga classes, join a weekly card game, attend lectures on philosophy, join a prayer group, join a bi-weekly orgy, and take part in a drinking contest. Avoiding sinking into the doldrums of boredom was a serious matter in the harem.

The Doctor was interested in the philosophy lectures and Yaz wanted to learn the southern women’s style of fighting. Yaz was also rather tempted by the prospect of an orgy, but it wasn’t exactly something she and the Doctor had ever talked about. She had enough common sense to realize that this probably wasn’t the time to bring it up.

When the meal was done one of the women began to play a violin like instrument and more than a few of the others began to dance. After watching for a few minutes, the Doctor took Yaz’s hand and they began to move together.

It was a good way to get a good 360 look at all of the courtyard, roof and guards. It was also just nice to hold Yaz and dance with her. In spite of everything, Yaz could feel herself relaxing into the Doctor’s arms. It had been a terrifying and exhausting day. They were nowhere near safe but at least they were together. For the moment that would have to be enough.

Suddenly there was the loud sound of a gong.

“Bow down before your empress,” someone boomed.

Yaz and the Doctor were so caught up in each other they reacted too slowly. Mita, who had also been dancing, half crawled a few steps to grab them both and yank them down.

“Keep your head on the ground,” she hissed. Grudgingly the Doctor complied.

There was the sound of footsteps on the tiled floor.

“This is the one? She’s a pretty thing, such rich dark hair,” the empress had a warm sonorous voice.

“Forgive me my empress but that is merely the alpha’s human mate. The alpha is the blond one,” she recognized the voice of the majordomo.

“Her?” the steps moved closer and a hand grabbed the Doctor’s chin and forced her face up. She found herself looking into two dark eyes nearly as insane as Missy’s blue ones.The empress was an attractive woman, at least in the physical sense. She had a well sculpted face, a nose neither too short or long, cheekbones with just the right amount of prominence, lips neither too full nor too thin but it was all ruined by the coldness in her eyes and the way she turned down her mouth when she frowned.

“She’s already got the start of crows feet. I wanted a younger one. I did tell you that didn’t I Livia?”

The Doctor wondered if she should be offended. She was no Helen of Troy but Yaz and Missy and every other woman she had bedded since regenerating had found her attractive. She was actually physically younger in this form than she had been in her last one.

The Majordomo fell into a deep bow, “Forgive me my empress, of course you did. Truly I am trying to find what you asked for. Alpha human variants are just so rare beyond Tyco, I thought I should at least give you a chance to consider this one. I’ll get rid of her at once.”

“No,” the empress wearily waved a hand at her. “Amelie is about to go into heat. I’d rather not watch the poor thing suffer in agony for ten days again. This alpha will have to do. Perhaps if she is not to my taste, she won’t be to Amelie’s either and we can avoid what happened last time.”

She let go of the Doctor’s face, “Bring the alpha and her mate to my room. Find Amelie as well, why wasn’t she here to greet me?”

If possible the majordomor sunk lower to the ground. “I am sorry empress. She asked for her meal to be sent to her room, she said her upcoming heat was making her tired. I will send her at once.”

“See that it is done,” and she swept out of the courtyard.

 

A short time later they were taken back through the gate of the courtyard but not the one beyond that. They room they were led into was probably the sort of place that Mary Anne had been imagining when she’d created her own bedroom of cheap red cloth and print carpet on board the Star Chaser.

This room’s walls were covered in rich tapestries and the floor laid with elaborate geometric carpets. A large bed with thick blankets and gauzy curtains covered half the room. The empress was reclining in a chair, sipping at a glass of what was probably the same clear liquor that had been served in the harem. There was a slight omega woman in her lap.

Amelie had a main of the rich curly black hair so common to women of Tyco and huge blue eyes. Her skin was as pale as a person from Kavu and her face as delicate as porcelain doll. She seemed terribly skinny, as if she’d more or less lost interest in eating at some point. She was dressed exquisitely in a delicate rose petal pink slip of a dress. Golden bangles clung to her wrists and ankles and diamond shone in her ears and gleamed on her neck.

Although she did not appear to be drugged, her gaze was empty and her expression was a carefully constructed mask. There may well have been a soul within her but she’d locked it away somewhere safe. Even from where she was standing, the Doctor could smell that she was coming into heat, although likely not for at least a day. The omega showed absolutely no outward sign of it.

The empress motioned to the guards to bring Yaz and the Doctor forward, “I’ve found you a new alpha to ease your heats my lovely, what do you think of her?”

The omega barley glanced at the Doctor. “If she’s an alpha that is all that matters.”

“You don’t like her?” The empress sounded pleased.

“You are the only woman I want,” the lie was evident in her voice but the empress seemed to believe her.

She cupped her face to briefly draw her into a kiss. “I know beautiful but you can’t go through another unattended heat, the last one weakened you too much.”

“If you get me suppressants then I won’t have to suffer my heats at all.”

Something ugly crossed the empress’s face. “I’ve warned you not to bring that up again.”

The omega flinched, her eyes instantly downcast and her shoulders hunched in fear, even as she held her position in the empress’s lap.

Her show of submission seemed to calm her keeper. “Don’t look so frightened little one. It is merely that I enjoy your heats so much that I have no wish for you to stop having them entirely, just for you not to suffer excessively.”

“As you will my empress,” murmured the omega demurely.  

The empress kissed her on the forehead, “Very good, Now what games shall we play tonight?”

“Could you send them away and bed me? It has been so long since the two of us have lain together alone.”

“Such a selfish creature you are my Amelie. You always want me all to yourself, the other women in the harem must hate you for it.”

“They have always been kind to me.” For the first time there was a hint of feeling in her voice.

“You never have a harsh word for anyone do you? Now, what shall we do with these two?” She answered her own question. “The ordinary human girl is pretty, we could fuck her together.”

“Don’t you dare touch her.” The Doctor snarled, moving between the empress and Yaz. Just as quickly, two of the guards that had remained in the room moved between the empress and the Doctor and the other two grabbed her..

The empress actually blinked in surprise. “My you are a protective one. I could have you beheaded for what you just said.”

“She is my mate, I won’t let you or anyone else hurt her.” She sounded very confident for a woman being restrained by two guards, then again she always sounded her most powerful when speaking to villians and tyrants.

The empress seemed impressed. “You are either completely insane or you actually care about her. I suppose that might actually be a good thing if it is the latter, it might keep you from getting too attached to my Amelie.” She paused to take another sip of her drink, “Alright then. I’ll be more than generous tonight and not do anything to hurt your bond with your mate. You may fuck her for my amusement. I need to make sure you know what you’re doing before I let you touch my Amelie.”

The Doctor clearly wanted to protest but Yaz grabbed her and yanked her into a showy kiss. The Doctor might be prone to grandstanding but the Yaz wasn’t. She didn’t see an immediate way out of their situation, at least one where they both kept their heads.

The Doctor tried to pull away but she clung to her.

“Please darling,” she whispered, “Play along.”

“But…” All the Doctor could think of was the arena. Memories of Yaz afraid and in pain flickered through her mind. She could almost hear that horrible roar of the crowd. She’d not even been able to defeat the other alpha, Yaz had done that for her, gotten them both through that terrible ordeal. Despite all of Yaz’s reassurances, she still felt that she’d failed Yaz that day. Now she was failing her again. How many times in her long life had she been unable to defend a lover or companion?

Yaz pressed a hand on either side of her face, “Please. I can’t stand it if you are hurt when I could have protected you.”

A thousand feelings warred inside of the Doctor but in the end she pulled Yaz as close as she could and kissed her.

Yaz found herself wondering absently what exactly the empress expected of them. Were they supposed to undress? Fuck on the bed or was the floor supposed to be sufficient? Screw it. She tugged her dress over her head in one fluid motion and strode towards the bed.

The Doctor followed and they tumbled onto the soft sheets. They actually were silk. Yaz felt an urge to tear them or find some other way to ruin them. Instead she pulled the Doctor over herself, kissing her so that neither of them could pause or think.

She grabbed at the Doctor’s shirt, tugging it over her head. That left them both topless. Bras were not much of a thing on Kavu or at least none had been offered to them.The Doctor was still hesitant to touch her, and kept glancing over her shoulder. Something she was seeing had her ready to growl again. She’d get them both killed if she did that.

Yaz rolled them, pinning the Doctor beneath herself. That was enough to distract her. She responded as Yaz ran her hands down her body catching a nipple between her fingers.

“Focus on me darling.”

“Just you.”

“Just me.”

She just started tugging down the Doctor’s pants when she sound of laughter completely ruined the moment.

“Is she the alpha or are you?”

The Doctor looked past Yaz towards the empress. “If you wait for Amelie’s heat to knock me into rut in a day or so I can show you.”

Her answer made the empress laugh again. At some point she had pulled off Amelie’s thin dress and was now touching her, pinching a nipple almost absent mindedly. The omega squirmed in her lap, her face carefully hidden in her hands..

“Cocky fool aren't you? Get off your back. I want to be certain you know how to properly pleasure a woman not just get fucked like a submissive bitch yourself. Fuck your mate or I will show you how to.”

“She’s mine.”

“Show me then little alpha.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed but she bit back the words that rose to her throat. She quickly rolled Yaz covering her mate with her own body again, pressing her down as if she could shield her.

“Mine.”

“Yours.”

She kissed her again this time with a possessive passion. As horrible as the situation was, Yaz felt her body respond. She was still beneath the Doctor, her Doctor. She’d keep her safe. She always had in the ways that mattered. Between the two of them they’d made it out of every dark place they had ever been before.

The Doctor quickly kissed a trail down her body, nudging between her legs. Yaz instinctively covered her breasts, feeling suddenly exposed. The first brush of the Doctor’s tongue made her gasp and cover her face with her other hand.

She knew that the Doctor was making sure she was wet and bringing her off as quickly as she could but she still wished that the Doctor had just fingered her instead. This, this was too intimate. She kept her hand over her eyes when she started to hear Amelia making sounds, soft moans that were half pleasure and half something else. She didn’t want to see what the empress was doing to the unhappy omega.

The Doctor brought her to the edge of orgasm, but as hard as Yaz tried to will it to come it wouldn’t. She considered faking a release but that was a dangerous proposition with how carefully the empress was watching them.

The Doctor pressed one and then two fingers into her. It was what Yaz needed. She rolled her hips, letting herself gasp and moan so that she couldn’t hear anything else in the room. The Doctor was so good with her fingers, she knew just how to curve them a tiny bit forward to stroke just the right place inside of her.

If she focused very hard, everything else faded away. She could image that the sheets under her were worn flanel, smell the old books of the Doctor’s room. For an instant she felt as if she were safe and back in the TARDIS. She and the Doctor were stealing an hour to themselves on some lazy afternoon.

Her orgasm tensed every muscle in her body. As she was coming down she heard Amelie make a muffled cry that was likely her own release. She didn’t have long to think on the mater, as the Doctor quickly moved back up, ostensibly to kiss her, more to pull a blanket over them both.

When Yaz opened her eyes she saw that the omega was still in the empress’s lap, her face hidden against the cloth of the empress’s shirt. The empress, still fully dressed, smirked at her.

“Your mate apparently knows what she’s doing after all. She seems very devoted to you as well. I think I will trust her with my favorite concubine when the time comes.”

Yaz had to fight down the urge to bare her teeth or say something that would get her and the Doctor killed. Instead she just pulled the Doctor closer to herself. She had to pinch her own leg to force her face to remain blank.

“Have we pleased you empress?” she ground out.

“Yes very much so. You may go.”

They didn’t wait to be told twice. They scrambled from the bed and headed for the door. Yaz barely paused to snatch her dress off the floor. One of the guards opened the door and they stepped out into the well lit hallway. They had made their way down about half of it before they both noticed they’d forgotten their shoes and more importantly, the doctor’s shirt.

The older of the two guards escorting them back, a woman likely in her late forties told her, “For future reference there are robes on a hook by the door and you can always grab one if you can’t find your clothes.”

The Doctor had actually not been very troubled about the matter until that point. The guard’s words caused her cross her arms over her breasts and look suddenly uncomfortable. Yaz slipped an arm around her waist to reassure her. Had she had any garment to offer the Doctor she would have but if she’d taken off her dress to give to her the she’d have been completely naked.

The other guard, a fit looking young woman who likely wasn’t much older than twenty laughed softly, “not that it really matters. No men are permitted within three gates of the harem and we are within the second gate right now.”

The first guard just shrugged as they walked, “Spoken like a true easterner. You know, just like women can fuck other women they can be modest about being seen naked by other women too. No reason the new girl should have to show her tits to the entire inner chambers in the future unless she wants to.”

The second guard just snorted as she unlocked the gate of the harem, “modesty is hardly a useful virtue in a concubine.”

“I don’t know, the empress often seems fascinated when she runs across a woman who can still blush.”

“Well you’ve been guarding her long enough to know.”

The guards ushered them in and locked the gate behind them.

The courtyard was considerably less crowded than before. One girl was singing and playing a lute as a small ground listened and drank coffee and little cups of some sort of alcohol. Another group was playing some manner of a dice game. Off in the two shadows two women were clearly making out against a pillar.

Every single pair of eyes in the place turned to them when they entered. The Doctor flushed and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

Mita, who had been reading a book in the light of the wall sconces, jumped up and hurried to them. She had a light silk shawl draped about her shoulders, which she quickly tugged it off and gave to the Doctor. She pulled it around herself gratefully.

She worriedly looked them both over. It wasn’t as it it was hard to guess what had happened but she still seemed concerned. She led them from the courtyard, pausing only to grab a bottle of the clear alcohol and a couple of glasses as she went.

Her room truly wasn’t much bigger than a shoebox, it barely fit a bed, a window and a trunk. She sat them both down on the edge of the small bed and poured them each a glass of the strong liquor.

“Here, it helps.”

Yaz threw hers back and the Doctor barely sipped at her own.

“Do either of you need a healer?”

“No, nothing like that at all,” said Yaz softly.

Mita sat on the trunk, still frowning at them like she wasn’t really sure what to do. “Listen...it’s okay to cry if you need to, or not cry if that will break you. This, none of this is easy, especially if you were freeborn.” She drank deeply from her own glass, her shoulders hunched tightly.

“We’ll be alright. We’ve been through worse before.”

“Of course you have. Forgive me, I know nothing of your lives.” After a moment she added.  “It does get easier.”

“Did it for you?” The Doctor did not mean the question in cruelty. All the same, if she had thought before she spoke, she would have seen the potential cruelty in her question.

Mita answered honestly. “A bit. I only cried after the first time, although none of it should have been a shock. When you chase a huntress you shouldn’t be surprised to be thrown into a cage with your wings clipped. All the same, I don’t think I realized what a monster she was until it was too late.

“She made me watch when my lover was shot and then she had me taken to her chamber. It would have been so much easier if she’d been violent, if she’d at least hurt me instead of just smiling that cheshire smile of hers and touching me the same way she always had. The real cruelty was that I had to act as if I still wanted her, as if nothing had happened. I knew that if I didn’t, she would have had me shot as well.

Her hands were shaking as bad as Yaz’s. “I’ve no right to even complain. At least I’m alive. Her renewed interest only lasted a few weeks. She barely sends for me more than once every few months now. It isn’t so hard to play a part anymore.” She paused suddenly, “I don’t even know why I’m going on about myself. I never talk this much. I should be taking care of the two of you right now, not the other way around.”

“I tend to have that effect on people, it’s alright.” said the Doctor.

“Listen, if you two need somewhere to be alone, you can you have this room for the night.”

The Doctor would have refused but Yaz cut her off. “We would be grateful for that, if it is not to much of an imposition.”

“It’s really not. I was already planning on spending the night with Eleanor and she’s got a room of her own as well.” She stood, “Before I go, let me show you the clothes I promised earlier.” She quickly made a small pile of shirts and dresses and pants on the chest. They were all considerably more ornate and embroidered than the clothes that Yaz and the Doctor had gotten from the bathhouse earlier. Mita was a few inches taller than either of the two of them but of similar build, so her clothes would likely fit. She added a wooden hair comb, hair ties, and even a couple books as an afterthought to the pile.

“You are being far too kind,” said the Doctor.

The other woman straightened up, “I’m really not. Other’s did the same for me when I first got here and that kept me from drowning myself in that lovely reflection pool. Do as much for the next woman and you’ll have repaid me.”

“I always pass on kindness,” said the Doctor.

Mita left them with a nod and Yaz and the Doctor curled up on the narrow bed. The Doctor had a plan of course, she always had a plan. Yaz made a few adjustments to make sure it was a plan that was actually possible, they sorted out the details and finally went to sleep.


	2. Consider the Akiu flower

Although Yaz drifted off in her arms, the Doctor could find no peace. Eventually her her nervous fidgeting grew so bad that she had to slip from the small room in order to not wake her mate.

She couldn’t find her slippers in the dark so she walked the corridors barefoot until she came to the main courtyard. It was actually very lovely at night. Moonlight slipped into the ornate space, reflecting on the dark water of the collection pool.

A single figure sat beside the water, feet kicking absently. She had a glass in her hand and was looking up at the sky. She’d dressed in nothing but a silk robe, its colors lost to the indistinction of the moonlight.

Amelie was clearly seeking solitude but the fates couldn’t have provided a more perfect opportunity for the Doctor to finally tell her who she was. She crossed the courtyard. The omega looked up apprehensively at the sound of her footsteps. The moment she saw the Doctor she turned her face away.

“You shouldn’t be seen with me, the empress’s spies will report it to her.”

“I’ll take that risk.” The Doctor sat down next to her and put her own feet in the cool water. It felt nice.

“Don’t sit so close either, you don’t want my coming heat to knock you into rut any sooner than necessary. She won’t let you touch me until the third day and then she’ll likely only let you knot me once. You won’t be close enough to me when my heat starts to cool for your rut to end with it.”

“You’ve done this before,” she spoke as gently as she could.

“Yes." When she turned the Doctor saw that she’d been crying long before she joined her.  “I’m so incredibly sorry that you’ve been brought here because of me. I’ll try to keep the empress from killing you or your mate.”  

Everything in the Doctor ached to wipe the tears from the omega’s face or hug her but she respected the woman’s request that she keep her distance.

She spoke very, very softly, “your captain, Mary Anne, sent me to rescue you.”

“What?”

“Your crew is looking for you. They can’t bring the Star Chaser into  Basilisk Empire space, but they asked me to help. I’ve got a special ship that helps me jump around space and time.”

Amelia scrambled to her feet, “let's go then.”

“It’s sort of back in the spaceport and I’m still working out a way to get out of here.”

Amelie slumped back to the ground like a marrient with its strings cut. The sobs she made then were utterly heartbreaking. When she exhausted herself she snatched up her forgotten glass and threw back the liquor in a single practiced motion. She refilled the glass from a bottle and repeated the action once more.

That done she sat with her wet feet curled under her. “How dare you make me hope.”

“I’m going to get you out of here, I swear it.”

Amelie look up at the sky again The faint light of the moon should have softened her and yet somehow it made her look older, more world worn.

“Do you think I haven’t tried? I was beaten both times, more than enough to be agony and never enough to leave scars. It’s almost funny you know, I’ve spent my whole life trying to escape an omega's fate and no matter how far I run I still end up in the same place.”

“There is no such thing as an omegas fate.”

“Spoken like an alpha,” venum clung to every word she spoke. “I ran away from my first wife when she raised a hand to me. She was high ranking enough in the government to have me found and dragged back. She told me that if I ever left again she’d divorce me and let me be thrown into one of breeding camps. The second time I ran I made sure to go so far that even she couldn't find me. I left Tyco and kept going.

“When I found Star Chaser, I knew I’d finally found a home. No one cared what I was so long as I could fix the ships bio systems. On Delahaye Station most people didn’t even know what an omega was much less think less of me for being one. They needed me to keep the air flowing. I was important. I’ve had a few years of freedom and I suppose I should be grateful, that is more than most people ever get.

“I fought alongside the others when the station was attacked. I wish I died with my friends there. Those slaver bastards thought I was pretty enough to be worth something. They put me into cold sleep and dragged me halfway across the universe to this hellhole I’m pretty sure the empress’s majordomo bought me more for the novelty of the stasis pod than anything else.”

She paused to pour more liquor into her glass, drinking deeply from the shining crystal. She was surely drunk but her voice remained steady, “I know that’s why the empress originally wanted me. She kept calling me Sleeping Beauty, like I was something magical and special, not just a slum rat from Tyco’s capital. It would have been almost charming if she hadn’t fucked me for the first time when I was still confused and sick from the cold sleep.

She hugged her arms closely around herself. “I cried then, I cried the second and the third time too. It just made her want me more. I couldn’t help the crying, no one had ever raped me before, not that that word has much meaning when someone actually owns you.”

“It always matters.”.

“Survival matters more and I’ve gotten very good at that.”

“That matters too.”

“She lost interest quick enough when my novelty wore off. I thought I’d just be allowed to drift into obscurity among the other women of the harem. There are some here she hasn’t touched in years. She gets off on keeping women as much as actually fucking them,”

“I was just starting to accept my life within these stone walls, even making friends, when my damn heat suppressant implant expired. I had my first real heat since I was a young teenager. It was bad...really bad. The others tried to help, they really did. When I got the the point of begging with need, one lay with me and when I tired her out another did. Orgasms can help, but I’m a third moon variant, only an alpha’s knot can actually ease my heats.

“The empress fell in lust with me all over again when she found me mewling and desperate, halfway through a heat that no woman present could sate. She liked me like that, clingy and pleading, a creature with no thought but need. She likes watching women suffer.”

Her lip curled, “she made me one of her favorites after that. I begged the majordomo to try and get me another suppressant implant, she didn’t even try, said the empress was eager to see my next heat.”

Her hands clenched. “She loves my heats, the bitch. She spends so much time fucking women who lay with her out of fear or hope for advancement that it is refreshing to her to be actually carnally wanted. Although in the throes of a heat its not as if I really care what woman is touching me. She always delights in the first few days and then leaves me to the care of the other women of the harem when my fever spikes and I become more wretched than desirable. After a year of watching me suffer, and learning that I’d begged for suppressants, she decided to find me an alpha to ease my heats.”

“The alpha before me?” asked the Doctor.

“Her name was Lilian.” Amelie set down her glass to cover her face. “She was so young, the daughter of a colonist family living at the very edge of the Tycan empire that was captured by slavers. At least I had a chance to live before I ended up here, she’d never been farther than the colony she was born in. She was so lonely and afraid when she was brought here.

“I tried to protect her. I really did. There just wasn’t much I could do. I told the empress I didn’t want her, that I would rather just suffer my heats alone. She didn’t listen. When she was done with me during my next heat, when I’d reached the point of losing my senses and was capable of nothing more than begging, she gave me to Lilian and watched. The poor girl was a virgin. She shouldn’t...well no one should ever have sex like that the first time. She didn’t know what she was doing. She scarred my neck biting too hard and nearly tore me trying to move too soon after knotting.”

“The empress loved watching us. She made us fuck again even when my heat was over, she did that a lot. I don’t know when she switched from liking it to being jealous. I should have paid better attention I should have been more careful. I could have at least stopped spending time with Lilian outside of the bedroom, the poor girl really was in love with me and I did nothing to dissuade her. I was lonely and it helped to just talk to another Tycan. Eventually Lilian made the mistake of growling at the empress when she tried to touch me while Lilian was fucking me during a heat. I begged the empress to forgive her, said that Lillian had only acted on instinct. It didn’t help. She was gone the next day and I never found out what happened to her. I can only hope that she was killed quickly.”

She paused taking a slow breath, “So you see why I keep telling you to keep your distance. The only way to prevent you from following that poor sweet alpha girl into the grave is if you don’t give the empress any reason to be jealous.”

“I understand.” The Doctor took a breath as well. “I am going to get you out of here, I promised Mary Anne that I would. I’m very good at getting out of impossible situations, I really am.”

Amelia drained her glass and then set down her glass, her hand trembling. “Goddess, I want to believe you. Fuck it, I really have nothing left to lose. Let me help in any way I can.”

And then the Doctor shared her plan.

 

…

 

Yaz spent most of the next morning sparring with the group of women from the south. She also spent the entire time getting her ass kicked. She had barely a year of police training and that was about it, most of these women had clearly been learning to fight since they could walk.

It didn’t take long to figure out that their leader was probably the woman they kept referring to as Princess Katya. She was the least Disney looking princess that Yaz had ever seen. She was a flinty eyed a warrior in her early thirties with short nut brown hair. She was lean and muscled and had a fair share of battle scars all over her body, at least the parts that were visible when she spared in cut off trousers and a tank top.

She had no hesitation about slamming Yaz into the mat repeatedly although she was kind enough to continue to coach her throughout.

“Stop tensing before you hit the ground, you’ll hurt yourself girl.”  

“Easy for you to say,” said Yaz picking herself off the mat. “You’re the one throwing me.”

“Who taught you to fight but not how to fall? Your mother should be ashamed.”

“She didn’t teach me.”

“She dead?” asked one of the watching warriors. She was the youngest among them, likely no more than twenty and had uncharacteristically curly hair for a woman from the south.

“No, just not a fighter, at least not this kind of fighting.”

“What kind of woman doesn’t know how to fight?” asked the younger warrior.

“Plenty outside of our tribes,” said another warrior. She was the oldest among them, likely in the first year of her forties, solidly built and aesthetically rather out of place in the harem.

If Yaz were to guess, the empress had likely acquired the Princess and her attendants as some sort of living set, a collection made more interesting by its pieces.

“Honestly Elba, most northern born women couldn’t throw a punch if their lives depended on it. They might have an empress but most of their warriors are male. They don’t raise their girls properly here.”

“And yet they still defeat us in battle, repeatedly.” said Princess Katya. She sounded infinitely exhausted. She’d lost interest in sparring and sat to take a drink of water from a water skin. Yaz did the same.”

Yaz was a bit surprised that the others were talking so openly in front of her. Then again it wasn’t as if the harem were a place with much privacy. Likely the friends had stopped caring who heard their conversations a long time ago.

“There are more of them,” said Elba. “You saw how outnumbered we were in the battle we were taken.”

“And they have much better weapons,” added the older warrior.

“Because they agreed to trade with offworlders when we wouldn’t.” Princess Katya was staring at the waterskin in her hands as if it had wronged her.

“Little enough we can do about that now princess,” said the older warrior, “You couldn’t change your mother's mind when you were at her side, there is little good to be found in grousing about it while locked with these stone walls.”

“My mother will randsome us and we will go home and convince her.”

“Princess, we know that the empress has turned down your weight in both silver and gold. By now your mother knows she’s never getting you back and has surely named your little sister as her war leader and heir.” She said it kindly but the words still burned the other woman.

“Why do you insist on mocking my hopes?”

“Because some kinds of hope are foolish. Hope has led us to try and escape three times. The empress has had you beaten worse each time, I fear if we try again she’ll simply kill you.”

“Better that than life with dishonor.”

The older woman just snorted. “Honor can be reclaimed, life cannot. With every day we draw breath there is the chance that something might change.”

Yaz coughed pointed, “Speaking of change, I’ve got a proposition for you.”

 

For her part the Doctor had an interesting time with the philosophy club. The woman who ran it, Diotima, had once been a professor in the capital city’s small university. Philosophy was serious business on Kavu, nearly as popular there as it had once been in ancient Greece.

Diotima had been a disciple of very famous philosopher and had become fairly well known in her own right. The empress had heard about her and came to see her lecture. Unfortunately for Diotima, the empress’s interest in her had proven far from platonic. Although in Diotima was fairly plane by any standards, hawk nosed and lean faced as she was her intellect must have leant her a kind of shine the empress wanted. After the lecture she had sent for her to be brought to the palace. The empress had never permitted her to leave the harems walls again.  Diotima had born her fate stoically but not happily.

Her students at the university had protested and would have likely caused considerable trouble had Diotima not written them a letter begging them to stop trying to free her. She didn’t want them to be killed. After that the empress had permitted her to continue publishing her writing from within the harem. She had named her best student as her successor and the young man now taught her work at the university.

While she had managed to collect a couple students in the harem, they were most not at the same level as the one’s she had had in the university. Mostly her lectures were attended by a handful of educated women from noble families. Mita had been a fan of Diotima’s writing from back when they were both free and from the way Mita looked at the other woman she clearly had one hell of a crush on her.  

As they listened to the lecture, sitting on the grass in a circle around the philosopher, Mita whispered to the Doctor. “I’ve been trying to seduce her for years and never gotten anywhere. No matter how blatantly I flirt she just smiles and gives me that serene smile of hers. She totally has a passionate affair going on with Princess Katya, although what a southern warrior and a northern philosopher have to talk about I’ve no idea.”

“Might not be based around talking.”

They settled back to focus on the lecture.

“Even in captivity there is freedom, our minds and the core of ourselves remain our own. Consider the Akiu flower.” She paused in her lecture to pluck a small pink blossom one from the column behind her. “Is it’s beauty in any way diminished because it blooms here within stone walls instead of in the wild? We might appreciate the flower more or less depending on when and where we see it but the flower itself remains the same, neither less nor more than what it is.”

“We are women not flowers,” said one of the women in audience was seemed to be the more argumentative sort. Although she was northern in her looks, she carried herself with a similar military bearing to Princess Katya. “Flowers don’t suffer or miss their families.”

“Eleanor, All metaphors have their limits. Were I a buddhist, I would say that there is an eight fold  path to escape suffering. I am not though, and do not believe that suffering can be avoided in this life, only faced with dignity.”

“Not a lot of dignity in falling from the rank of head general to little more than a glorified sex slave.”

“Are you certain? I argue that dignity comes not from a person's rank in life but how they conduct themself. I doubt there is a woman here who would say that you do not live a life of dignity. You have not been reduced to despair or grown petty or cruel despite your circumstances. Instead you treat others here with respect and help when you can. You’ve even made peace with Princess Katya, although you were mortal enemies outside these walls.”

The former general took a moment to think over her reply before she gave it. “What we have here is still no kind of life.”

“As long as we draw breath, it is a life.”

“Not a good one.”

“Was your life before you came here a good one?”

Again the general did not have an immediate answer. She chewed at her lip. “Hell if I know but it was mine.”

“Your life is still your own.”

“No it’s not. I can’t walk out those gates. I don’t even have any say over my own body be it how my hair is cut or who gets to fuck me.”

Everyone shifted uneasily at her words. Her last sentence had reminded them of things they’d rather not think about.

This time the philosopher also took her time before replying. “Your freedom and your autonomy over your body have been taken from you, as they have been from all of us. However, even the empress cannot take your core of self or your dignity from you unless you let her.”

“That’s cold comfort.”

“It is the one form of resistance we have left, so we must cling to it.”

Things might have gone on longer but a bell announced that the midday meal was laid out and women began to drift away. The Doctor took the chance to slip closer to Diotima and Eleanor. “How would you both like to actually get out of this place?”

 

Amelie’s heat must have hit, or she’d at least been removed from the harem because they saw no sign of her that day or the next. Yaz and the Doctor used the time to carefully gathering allies. The Doctor had an impressive talent for knowing just where and how to gently tug threads, who needed a push, who a bribe, who a kind word. It still went painstakingly slowly though. They weren’t the first women who’d tried to escape and they couldn’t risk repeating the same mistakes as those who had gone before.

The whip scars that the Doctor noticed on Princess Katya’s back when she saw the woman swimming in the collection pool more than convinced her that it wasn’t worth risking having Yaz hurt like that if they attempted their escape too quickly and failed.

The summons came three days later just after the evening meal.  The scent of Amelie’s heat hit the Doctor the moment the guards brought her and Yaz into the empress’s quarters.

The empress was dressed in a robe and sitting on the bed with the naked omega curled against her. Seeing Amelie without a scrap of clothes the Doctor was against struck by just how skinny the young woman was. She hadn’t reached the point of gaunt yet but her skin pulled too tightly to her ribs.

In spite of it, her beauty still burned as brightly as her heat. Her breasts were small and perfect, her alert nipples pink as rose petals. Her pale skin was flushed and beaded with sweat.

The Doctor felt her own body responding, the first fires of rut warming her blood. She’d never missed her damn suppressant implant more than she did in that moment. How could she physically want a woman who was so clearly miserable? It occurred to her in that moment with a cold shock that there was also might be a risk of getting the omega pregnant. She didn’t exactly have her coat or the condoms she’d put in her pockets.

Then again, as far as she knew Amelie had not conceived by the last alpha, so perhaps she’d found some way to prevent it or she’d just been lucky before.

Amelie raised her weary head and began to sniff the air.  Her normally clear blue eyes were clouded with the agony of an unattended heat. She tried to stand and go to the Doctor. The empress kept a firm grip around her waist and she was too weak to pull away.

“Soon my lovely. I want to see the alpha knot her own mate before I will trust her to safely do it to you. I don’t want to risk her tearing you like the last alpha did the first time she knotted you.”

The empress motioned at the guards to bring Yaz and the Doctor to the bed.

“Yaz is not an omega. I can’t easily knot her,” said the Doctor.

Brief clarity flickered in Amelie’s eyes. She turned in the empress's arms, “please, your majesty, don’t ask this of them. It is hard for non Tycan humans to take knots and if it is done wrong they can be hurt. Remember when you had Lillian fuck Elba during a rut? Elba got scared when she felt the knot and tried to pull away when it was going in and was torn so badly she needed stitches from the healer.”

The empress kissed the top of her head, “my dear you are far too kind at heart. You are my favorite, you need not concern yourself with the wellbeing of lesser concubines.”

Her tone was considerably less gentle when she turned her attention to the Doctor.  “‘Not easily” means you can and have before. Do as I bid you.”

Yaz grabbed the Doctors arm before she could give voice to the growl rising in her throat. The last thing they needed was the Doctor showing rut aggression to the empress, especially with four guards in the room.

She quickly bowed in the way she had seen other women in the harem do. She hated herself for complying but she had no doubt that the empress would find some way to force her and the Doctor to do what she wanted if she didn’t. All she could do was take as much control of the situation as she could. She knew that she could survive another forced and painful knotting like she'd suffered in the arena if she had to but she wasn’t sure the Doctor could. The guilt had nearly broken the Time Lady.

Yaz had never fully understood why the Doctor had blamed herself so much. She couldn’t have possibly known what they were walking into when they’d agreed to help the rebels, or that they’d be captured. As far as the events in the arena had gone, the Doctor surely must have realized that she was blameless. The poor Time Lady had been too sick from the rut drugs she’d been given to even defended herself against the other alpha much less anything else.

Yaz had been the one who’d turned violent like some wild animal and she’d not even been drugged. She’d been entirely herself when she’d fought and choked out a stranger in order to protected her mate. In front of a roaring crowd, she’d pushed the Doctor onto her back and fucked her.  Her mate had been too dazed to do anything but say she wanted her.

And yet the Doctor had been the one who’d carried the weight of that day. She’d tried so hard to hide it but Yaz had known. She wasn’t going to give her mate the chance to feel guilty again. She couldn’t show a flicker of hestistantion or fear this time.

“We will do as you ask but we will need time and some kind of lubricant, my body cannot take a knot as easily as an omegas.”

That earned her a snort of amusement. “Check the cabinet beside the bed. We are not savages.”

She did and found a bottle of lube, possibly from offworld. One annoying thing about the TARDIS translation software was it made it hard to tell if something was in a familiar script or not and what kind of script that was. She was frowning at the label when she felt the Doctor slip her arms around her from behind.

“I’m here, you’re safe, we’ll get through this.”

Yaz turned and kissed her, pausing to whisper, “we always do.”

She tugged off her dress and then sat down on the bed. She drew her legs up to lie back against the headboard. The Doctor stripped and then followed her. She’d fallen fully into rut from the omegas scent but that had never been enough to rob her of her senses.

She took her time, as if it truly were just her her and Yaz. Kissing at least felt familiar, so did the heat of the Doctor’s skin. Yaz had seen the Doctor through enough ruts to begin to notice more subtle things than the obvious physical changes.

The Doctor’s body that always burned a few degrees hotter than a human’s, but ruts made her skin almost scorching.  Her breath was always grew faster, her twin pulse more rapid. The dilated eyes were hard to miss. She tended to get a bit more profuse with her endearments as well.

“I’ve got you my brilliant perfect wonderful darling.”

Yaz pulled her as close as she could, kissing her deeply as the Doctor ran her hands over her body. When she took too long for the obviously impatient empress Yaz sped things up. She caught the Doctor’s hand to her mouth, at first innocently kissing and then somewhat more obscently applying saliva. The Doctor got the idea.

When Yaz let got of her fingers, the Doctor applied lube from the bottle before she pressed them  back into her, at first two and then three and eventually four.

As long as Yaz kept her eyes closed she could forget everything, just feel. It was enough for her body to forget, or at least to only remember that her mate was touching her. The Doctor was so very good at what she was doing.

The orgasm that caught Yaz was only a bit of a surprise. It felt almost obscene to find any kind of release under the circumstances, but she did. She wasn’t too far gone to realize what the doctor was doing when she felt more than just four fingers pressing into her.

She caught the Doctor’s wrist, whispering, “No, I...that’s too personal for this.” she could feel tears at the edge of her eyes and she hated herself for it.

“Shouldn’t I fist you first? I don’t want to hurt you.” The Doctor sounded scared.

“We don’t have to. I think I can take your knot now even if you don’t.”

“But…” Those damn green eyes were so huge and worried.

“Damn it I only ever asked it because it was something I wanted, not something I needed.”

Want and need were such funny words, nearly interchangeable really and yet not. Yaz had always asked the Doctor to fist her before they knotted because it was something familiar from when she’d had human lovers, something she knew how to do that made the unfamiliar easier. This time though, there was no time for what was familiar and safe. She leaned forward to speak softly into her mate’s ear.

“I’m ready my love, just take me. Anything more is too intimate to let her see.”

The Doctor pressed her lips against hers again.

It felt strange to have her press her body into hers from the position they were in. They didn’t really do missionary very often, not with Yaz on the bottom. When the Doctor was in rut, Yaz usually liked to be on top because it made it easier to take a knot, although she was sometimes willing to go onto her hands and knees because the Doctor loved it so much. It was really only a position they used when they fucking with a strapon, usually with the Doctor desperate and gasping beneath her..

Yaz was slightly startled when she felt the Doctor shove a pillow under hips. Her lips were warm and passionate against her own as she pressed into her. That part was easy and she moaned in pleasure. They’d done it so many times. The doctor may have only been an alpha for a handful of her regenerations, but alpha, beta or omega, she had had certain equipment for all of them, even if she currently only had it part time. She knew what she was doing.  

Yaz buried her face in her shoulder and clung to her lover as she let herself be fucked. Her body knew what it wanted even if her mind was in turmoil. She forced herself to keep her eyes closed. As she had the first night the empress sent for them, she forced herself to forget that they were being observed.

That got very hard to do when she began to hear Amelie crying out in a way that sounded more like frustrated need than anything approaching pleasure.

She rolled her hip against the Doctor, pushing against her. Their eyes locked in the flickering light of the lantern, green and chestnut brown. Epics had been written for less.

“I can’t…” The Doctor was so afraid of hurting her.

“You can, I’m ready.”

Yaz tried to hide it but she still let out a low moan of pain as the Doctor’s knot pushed into her. She dug her nails into the Doctor’s back and bit her shoulder to stifle her sounds.

The Doctor stilled to let her adjust and managed to work a hand between them so she could touch her clit.

It took a moment for Yaz to slow the frantic beating of her own heart. She’d been fighting it down, but she’d been so afraid that things would hurt like they had in the arena. She’d been able to stay calm this time and it hadn’t been much harder than a normal coupling. She rolled her hips and everything felt good.

The soft sound of desperation the Doctor made gave her a new sense of urgency.

“Go on, fuck me. I want you darling,” Yaz gasped, too overcome to bother whispering and the Doctor obeyed.

The Doctor held out just long enough to see Yaz arch her back with release before she followed her. For the first time since they had begun to tumble, the Doctor actually collapsed onto Yaz when her orgasm took her. Her whole body was trembling, Yaz drew her into her arms, stroking her golden hair.

The intensity of the moment was almost too much and they had both begun to drift off when they felt the bed shift.

The Doctor growled, low and dangerous.

Amelie flinched back, her beautiful blue eyes wide with need and fear.

“Please, please,” even those words were a struggle.  It was pure torture for the omega to be this close to an alpha after three days in an unattended heat.

The Doctor regretted her show of aggression the moment she saw the omega’s misery. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to growl.”

Yaz’s eyes flickered open and the image of the other woman’s pain tore at her. “It’s okay, we’ll take care of you.” she reached for her.

When her hand touched Amelie’s arm, her skin was burning. More worry tore at Yaz and she caught up the Omega’s wrist so she could take her pulse. It was rapid but not wild.

Her actions confused the other woman.

“I just had to make sure you weren’t suffering from adrenaline poisoning,” said Yaz.

She blinked at her fighting for clarity. “I want to kiss you, can I kiss you?”

“Yes,”

It was a somewhat awkward situation and angle. Amelia had to lean between the Doctor and Yaz to press her lips against the other woman’s. It wasn’t as if the Doctor had any complaints. As somnolent as she was after knotting and orgasming, she was still more than happy to start kissing at the back of the omega’s neck.

She was even happier to trail a hand down her body. When Amelie let out a series of desperate almost pleading moans she took that as encouragement. When she pressed her fingers against her cunt from behind she was beyond soaked.

“Please, I need, please,yes. Fuck me damn it. Fuck me.”

As the Doctor began to fuck her with two fingers, Yack kept kissing her. She was at a perfect angle to work a hand between her legs and find her clit. Leaning between the two of them the omega was exactly where she wanted to be. She came clenching around the Doctor’s fingers and then again a half breath later.

When the Doctor stilled her fingers the omega whined miserably, “don’t stop, please don't stop.”

The position was very clumsy but the doctor managed to kiss her on the cheek, “Forgive me. I don’t want to exhaust you before I can ease your heat properly. You look so weary beautiful one.”

“Then fuck me already,” she sounded so different from the cold and collected woman she had been a few days before.

“I will soon sweet omega, but I can’t until I’ve unlocked from my mate.”

“How long?”

“Some time yet, I’m so sorry, Lie down and we’ll hold you.”

The omega let out a low sound of pain but she still she lay down beside Yaz and the Doctor curling against them, a match girl clasping at dying embers.

Yaz wrapped an arm around her and the Doctor stroked her hair. They couldn’t break her heat yet but her shivering eased at little.

“Are you seriously still locked? The last alpha never took this long.” The empress leaned over the omega. She ran her fingers down Yaz’s stomach pressing between her legs and feeling where her body joined with the Doctor’s.

“No! Don’t fucking touch us.” Yaz at least managed words.

The doctor made a deep animal snarl and caught the other woman’s wrist.

For half an instant, surprise and pain registered on the empress's face. No one had dared stop her, much less caused her discomfort, in a very long time.

Amelie saved them all from what might have come of that moment. She rolled to grab at the empress’s robe, kissing her and pulling her away from the Doctor and Yaz.

“I want you, I want you. Won't you take me while we wait for the unless alpha to un-knot.”

It was enough to distract the empress.

“You want me do you little omega?”

“Yes, yes.”

“More than her knot?” The empress was no fool even in the midst of one of her cruel games.

“Yes.” the lie was evident but she still spoke it.

“Enough to bear another un-eased heat?”

“If...if it is your wish your majesty.” the words sounded as if they cost everything she had left.

The empress pressed the slight woman under herself, forcing her fingers into her desperate body. “You slut, you say that now, but your tune will change in only a few hours as yours heat worsens.”

The omega writhed against her. “It’s only my body.”

“It’s your body I want little one.”

“Then give me pleasure. Only you can give me that properly. All that alpha has to offer is a cessation of pain.” She’d learned her part well.

Everything in the Doctor ached to go to the omega’s defense even if she was absolutely in no position to do so.

Yaz pressed their foreheads together so that their eyes were as locked as their bodies.

“Stay with me.”

“I’m with you.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

The next few minutes were terrible but they passed. By the time that the empress finally pulled away from the omega, Yaz and the Doctor had disentangled.

The empress laughed at how desperately Amelia reached for the Doctor. “Such a wanton creature, for all your pretty words you do want her you little whore.”

The omega froze looking back over her shoulder trembling. “Please, it just hurts so much.”

“You can have her then. Let it never be said that I let my favorite suffer.”

To the Doctor she said. “Take her on her hands and knees, she likes that. Be gentle though, if you harm her I will have you shot.”

Wordlessly the Doctor and Amelie moved into position. The slight omega made a sound somewhere between a sob and a moan when the Doctor finally pressed into her. The Doctor tried to give her a moment to adjust but the omega was too far into her heat to do anything but begin to move immediately.

“Please, please, please.”

The doctor had begun to do as she asked when she sensed movement at her side. It took everything she had not to snarl as the empress began to touch the omega beneath her.

She pinched a nipple with one hand and found her clit with the other. She was leaning close enough to whisper in the omega’s ear. Something she said was enough to  cause Amelie to cry, even as she kept moving against the Doctor.

The Doctor wasn’t sure if she’d ever hated anyone as much as she did the empress in that moment. Only the feel of Yaz’s hand on her arm, only the knowledge that they had a plan and that she’d burn the entire palace to the ground soon enough let her keep going.  

She barely noticed when her knot began to form. They were both so very close. Amelie slammed back against her.

“Yes, please, yes.”

After three days of agony she barely made any show of discomfort at all as the knot popped into her aching body. The Doctor had to grab her hips so she wouldn’t move too much and hurt herself now that the knot was inside of her. The omega was beyond caring.

“Fuck me, fuck me, bite me.”

She clenched around the Doctor as she writhed and that was more than the Time Lady could take. She came with a desperate gasp.

The empress chose that moment to bite the omega on the back of the neck. She came with a tortured sob, collapsing beneath the Doctor. Only thousands of years of experience kept the Doctor from tumbling down with her.

She eased down carefully and then stretched out on her side. She instinctively tried to pull the omega safely into the circle of her arms.

Someone caught her arm. “No, you don’t get to touch her anymore.”

Anger coiled in the Doctor’s stomach like a snake. Her lips drew back from her teeth. Only Yaz’s voice in her ear stopped her.

“Don’t darling, don’t.”

She let go of the omega she was still inside, letting her arms lay at her sides. Yaz quickly caught one of her hands in her own.

The empress had drawn Amelia into her own embrace and was still murmuring to her softly. The omega lay utterly still, her skin already cooling now that her heat had finally begun to break.

It was torture to lie so close to a woman she’d just knotted and not touch her. Without the feeling of Yaz’s fingers laced through her own she couldn’t have done it.

Amelie’s breath quickly eased into sleep. Fondly the empress brushed her sweaty hair from her face and kissed her forehead. “Poor thing, her heats really do exhaust her so.”

She looked over the sleeping omega to the Doctor. “You’ve done well enough, you are certainly no young fool like the last alpha. I’ll keep you and your mate for now so that you can service Amelie when her heat comes again. I trust you are smart enough to know that I will have you tortured to death if you so much as look at her again before that time comes?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor very quietly. She couldn’t keep the cold fury from her eyes and she knew the empress saw it.

“So much anger little alpha,” chuckled the empress. “And I barely even touched your mate. What would you do if I fucked her.”

“Let’s not find out,” her voice had gone even lower. It was a dangerous tone that Yaz had only heard her use a few times times before.

“I can’t easily replace you yet, so I suppose we won't. The moment you can pull free of my favorite without hurting her, you may go.”  

The Doctor gave no answer. She didn’t trust herself not to say something that would anger the empress.

When she felt her knot go down she slowly pulled out of the sleeping omega. Amelia whimpered and tried to turn towards her without opening her eyes. The empress kept a firm grip on her.

It tore at her heart but the Doctor still let Yaz tug her from the bed. This time they did grab the robes from the hook on the wall as two of the guards ushered them out. Yaz found herself absently wondering if royalty always fucked in front of their guards, or just batshit insane rapist empresses.

“Is she safe to take back to the harem?” the older guard asked Yaz, tilting her head towards the Doctor.

“Why wouldn’t she be?”

“The last alpha actually fought us the first few time we took her away from the omega. We made the mistake of just chucking her back in the harem and she caused all kinds of trouble”

“All kinds of trouble?” asked the Doctor.

The younger guard was eager to tell the story,“Mita and Diotima were worried about her and tried to get her to go lie down. When Diotima put a hand on her arm she freaked out and shoved her away from herself. The philosopher didn’t suffer any worse harm than falling on her bony ass but that southern warrior princess chick got really upset. She and the philosopher have some complicated romance going on or something. Anyway Katya got in Lillian’s face and they ended up fighting.”

“It wasn’t really much of a fight,” said the older guard. “The alpha girl threw a punch, the princess dodged, caught her wrist, twisted her arm and pinned her to the ground. She basically just sat on her until we came and put Lillian in a locked room to calm down.” She paused, again glancing at the Doctor, “so you’re not going to do anything like that are you?”

“I’m not some teenager, I can control my rut aggression.”

“Well if you can’t, don’t pick a fight with Princess Katya. I can promise that won’t end well for you.”  

They had reached the harem gate and the guards ushered them in. It was late in the evening, long past sunset and courtyard was mostly deserted, save for a woman with a guitar and a small audience. This time there was no sign of Mita.

Yaz tugged at the Doctor’s hand, “come on, I want a bath.”

She couldn't’ explain exactly why but she wanted the omega’s scent off of the Doctor. She had actually felt the same way after the times they had bedded Missy. She had liked the way the Time Lady omega had smelled when they’d all been having sex but afterwards the way the other woman's scent had clung to her lover had bothered her slightly. She’d felt the same after they’d bedded Mary Anne as well.

She’d thought about asking the Doctor about it but never had. The Doctor still couldn’t seem to figure out why Yaz could scent ruts and heats when most humans from her time period couldn’t. The Doctor hated unanswered questions and Yaz knew that if she reminded the Doctor about it she would inevitably obsess for a while and she didn’t want that.

The small bathhouse was mostly empty. Their arrival startled Mita and Eleanor, the Kavu general who had argued with the philosopher a few days before. The two women had been lazily making out while sitting in the warm water, any attempt at actually bathing forgotten.

They hadn’t pulled apart when they heard footsteps but when they did when they saw who had entered the baths. Mita stood up quickly, unconcerned with her nudity.

“Doctor, Yaz, you're back. Are you both alright?”

Yaz had no idea how to answer that.

“As much as we can be,” said the Doctor.

“And Amelie?”

“Her heat was starting to break when we were sent away.”

Eleanor rested her arms on the ceramic tiled edge of the bathing pool. “It is good to see you both alive and well. Everyone was worried that...well I probably don’t need to say it.”   

“Good, because if one more person reminds me that the empress murdered the last alpha I am going to start screaming.” Yaz she shed her robe and dove into the deeper end of the warm pool.

The Doctor gathered up some shampoo and soap and followed her. She wasn’t normally modest, but something about ruts, especially in a female body, had that effect on her. She set down the soap a fair distance from the other couple, she chucked the robe and quickly stepped into the water, dunking her head.

She apparently hadn't done it fast enough because when she looked up both Mita and Eleanor were staring at her. The former privy council member looked unabashedly fascinated and the former general slightly surprised.

“What?” the Doctor tried not to sound too snappish.

“You look a bit different than last time I saw you naked,” said Mita with a good natured shrug.

“Ruts change my body temporarily.”

“I see,” she sounded like she wouldn’t mind seeing more.

The Doctor let out a frustrated breath, “listen, I don’t want to be rude but I really can’t stand to being stared at right now, not after what happened tonight.”

Mita blushed, “Right, sorry.”

“It’s fine.” She set about scrubbing herself and Yaz joined her.

Sensing that their presence wasn’t necessarily welcome Mita and Eleanor both slipped from the pool and dressed quickly.

“Do you want to borrow my room again?” asked Mita gently.

“We couldn’t…” began the Doctor but Yaz talked over her.

“Yes, thank you.” She wasn’t sure she could face the crowded dorm that night. It wasn’t as if a closed door could make her any safer and yet it had helped a few doors before.

“Of course,” with a nod Mita and Eleanor departed.

Yaz leaned back against the Doctor as they sat in the steamy dim room. The Doctor pulled her closer and held her.

Yaz’s tears took her by surprise. She’d been so strong for so long and yet now, the moment they had a bit of peace and quiet, she broke.  

She turned to bury her face against the Doctor’s collarbone, listening to the twin beats of her heart.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying.

The Doctor rubbed slow circles on her naked back. “You are allowed to cry my fearless, brilliant, love.”

“No one’s hurt me. I...shouldn’t. If I cry then you have to be strong.”

“If you cry then I don’t have to, go on.”

And she did until she felt calm again. They left the water, dressed and went to pass the night in the illusion of privacy and safety that a small room and a narrow bed could provide.

 


	3. Sic semper tyrannis

 

Yaz woke to something very familiar pressed against her back. She stretched lazily, snuggling more firmly against the Doctor and getting a soft sound of longing from her.

“You’re still in rut?”

“I will be for a bit. It should have cooled with Amelie’s heat but I didn’t get the chance to hold her long enough.”

Yaz turned in her lovers arms and began nibbling at her throat. “I suppose I could help you out.”

“You don’t have to. Unless you want to.” The Doctor sounded so vulnerable. “I mean if your sore or…”

“Oh I want to.”

She kissed her lover thoroughly and nudged her onto her back. The Doctor went willingly, looking up at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. That nearly broke something inside of Yaz. Words weren’t her strength, so she handed the Doctor’s from the night before back to her as she sunk down onto her.

“Mine.”

“Yours.”

They made slow, reaffirming love and didn't leave the small room until half the morning was gone.

 

That afternoon Amelie was returned to the harem. The moment the Doctor saw the omega enter the courtyard she ached to go to her. They’d mated less than a day before and the Doctor could see the misery and exhaustion in the young woman's slumped shoulders and downcast eyes.

She even began to stand from where she was sitting at one of the courtyard’s low tables eating the afternoon meal. Yaz grabbed her arm and shook her head once, sharply.

Mita had already crossed the courtyard to the dazed omega. She took her hand and quickly led her from the courtyard. Gradually conversation resumed and everyone returned their attention to their food.

The empress came into the harem before the evening meal that day.

Yaz was sparing with Princes Katya in the cooler air of late afternoon. After the stress of the last week it felt good to do something physical and exhausting, even if it mostly involved getting slammed into the mat again and again.

Yaz was not oblivious to how incredibly attractive she found the warrior princess. Unfortunately for Yaz, the warrior seemed to have no interest in her beyond improving her fighting form. Still there were worse ways to spend an afternoon than rolling around with an strapping woman.

So intent were they on their match they didn’t hear the loud gong when the empress entered the harem. Katya had her pinned on the mat with her arm twisted behind her.

“Stop struggling and use your head girl.”

“I’m trying,” well more wiggling that anything else but any movement just shot flashes of pain through her arm.

“Then why haven’t you thrown me?”

She used her free hand to try to rise up and unseat the other woman but she wasn’t strong enough with one arm. “You’re too heavy.”

“Use that against me.”

“How!”

“Hook my leg with your ankle and roll in that direction. Do it on the opposite side of the pinned arm.”

Yaz tried and to her amazement it worked. Katya let out a delighted chuckle as her own back hit the mat, “Good girl you can learn after all.”

“Stop calling me a girl. I’m twenty years old.”

“I’ll call you a woman when you prove you can fight like one.” She had a rather infuriating smirk. It suited her.

It was only then that Yaz noticed the complete silence that surrounded them.The empress’s laughter was sharp and cruel.

“My you really do act the alpha far more than your mate does. I think this may be the first time I’ve seen any woman get the princess on her back. I usually have to have her tied up to get her that way.”

Yaz scrambled off of the other woman, falling into a wary crouch. Katya rolled into a bow, keeping her head just high enough to watch the empress warily.

“If you could best me in a fight, you could have me on my back any time you wanted,” the implication that she couldn’t was clear.

The empress reached down to stroke the warriors short hair almost fondy, “I was not raised to engage in such barbaric practices as actually fighting like a common foot soldier.”

“No, you have others do that for you,” Katya knew she was on dangerous ground. She didn’t seem to care.

“Because I have the power to make them. It’s the same power I have over you princess.”

“Such is the power of a tyrant.”

“I have never pretend to be anything else. Now come along, I want to see you fuck that philosopher you are so terribly in love with. It’s fun watching you both try so hard to remain dignified in utterly degrading situations.”

 

That was the night the Doctor and her allies managed to enact the first step of their plan. For the first stage Mita, Eleanor, Princess Katya’s two handmaidens, Yaz, and the Doctor all worked together. They needed a music player, a radio, and a soldering iron. Obtaining any of those items in the harem proved challenging Anything remotely dangerous was absolutely forbidden. So was any form of technology, there had been an incident where an offworlder slave had once successfully built a laser from random parts and killed several guards in an attempt to escape. She’d been shot for it of course and ever since all electronics had been banned within the walls.

The music player was the easiest device to get smuggled in. While sleeping with the guards was absolutely forbidden, it still happened and Mita had one of the more foolish young ones in the palm of her hand. She’d actually originally seduced the guard purely out of boredom but the connection now proved useful. She begged her to bring her some kind of musical device and eventually the woman cracked and smuggled her in a small one.

The radio proved nearly as easy to aquire. All of the guards carried them so they could communicate. Elba snatched one of a guard who had perfected the art of napping leaning against a column while she was supposed to be watching the courtyard. The woman was unlikely to report the theft because then she’d have to admit she’d been sleeping on duty.

The soldering iron proved a bit more complicated. No guard was going to be dumb enough to smuggle one in. They would need to steal it and and it wasn’t something normally kept within the harem. All repairs within the harem itself were done by normal palace staff with special clearance. That staff included an electrician who always brought a heavy rolling box of tools with her when she came to repair anything in the harem, because it was too hard to come and go for tools once she’d passed through the main gate.

Besides the security system the harem had electrical lights. Apparently the risk of one of them getting at the wiring was deemed to be less dangerous than giving them access to fire. The Doctor and her friends concluded that the lights would be one of the easiest things to sabotage.

They needed to find a place that was public enough for some of them to be underfoot while the electrician was making repairs but also secluded enough to conduct the initial sabotage that would require the repairs. The control panel for the bath house was sacrificed. It was easy for the Doctor to use a fork to mess it up just enough so that the lights flickered and the sensor that controlled the water temperature stopped working.

The guards usually avoided the bath house entirely because it was hot and steamy and not a very peasant place to stand around in a uniform. It was also not generally a good idea to spend to long staring at the naked concubines of a notoriously jealous empress.

The plan was to have one one of them to distract the electrician while someone else got the soldering iron from the toolbox. Plan A had been for someone to just ask her to come look at a different electrical problem while she was working on the panel.

General Eleanor tried that, telling her that the lights weren’t working in her room.

“I’ll get to that next.”

“Can’t you do it now. Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Some disgraced general?” The woman sounded unimpressed.

“Yes from a very powerful family. You don’t want to piss me off.”

“If I don’t fix this panel about fifty women are going to be pissed at me because they can’t take hot baths. Get in line.”

Plan B was to have someone flirt with the electrician. Rumor was that while she’d never gotten involved with anyone in the harem her eyes tended to linger. As one of the younger and more attractive women in the conspiracy, Yaz got nominated. She’d always thought she was good at flirting, as it turned out, she really wasn’t.

She made a show of wandering into the bathhouse and undressing.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, the hot water’s out.” The electrician called over her shoulder.

Yaz very loosely wrapped a towel around herself and came to stand way too close to the electrician, leaning over just the right amount. She gave the woman a deliberate once over with her eyes. It wasn’t a hardship, the electrician had the sort of tough handywoman look she’d always had a weak spot for.

“How long until it’s fixed.”

“It will take as long as it takes. Honestly I think someone actually broke this damn thing on purpose.”

“Can you fix it faster?”

The woman finally spared her a glance, pausing briefly on her mostly exposed cleavage. Yaz gave her a smile. The electrician made an amused sound and returned her attention to the wall panel.

“Don’t even try honey.”

“Don’t like what you see?”

“I’m married.”

“Oh?”

“And my wife totally has better tits than you.”

On behalf of her tits, Yaz was rather offended. She still managed to let it go with a shrug, while she had faced very little rejection in her life, it wasn’t an unfamiliar experience. She might have even felt like laughing about it later if so much wasn’t at stake.

Plan C was for the Doctor to distract the electrician by showing interest in her work. That one actually worked. All she had to do was lie and say she was an engineer and ask the electrician what she was doing. Soon enough they were having an animated conversation about alternating currents. It was easy enough for General Eleanor to wander past, briefly pretend to stare at the panel and snatch up a soldering iron from the disorganized box and shove it in a towel.

They weren’t sure if the electrician would later notice the theft or if she would just assume she’d misplaced the tool. She had four nearly identical ones for no reason.

That night in the privacy of Mita’s room the Doctor tore apart the music device and used the soldering iron to use the parts to make a new sonic. She used the sonic to modify the radio so that she could call out to Graham and Ryan and work out the final steps of the plan. Then she let both Mita and Eleanor to make a call.

After that there was nothing to do but wait. They hid everything beneath a loose floorboard and wandered out to take in the cool night air of the main courtyard with Mita and Eleanor. Mita retrieved a jug of clear liquor and some sweets and they all sat on the soft grass. Amelia glanced at them from across the courtyard where she was reading but did not dare join them.

They had just settled in when Princess Katya and Diotima were let back into the harem. They’d both lost their clothing from earlier and were wearing the same simple silk robes that the Doctor and Yaz had been returned in the night before.

Instead of heading towards the rooms they came and sat with the others. Princess Katya drew the philosopher in to her arms and the slighter woman leaned back against her wearily. Although there were no visible marks on Diotima, Yaz could see dark bruising on Katya’s wrists. There was a still forming bruise on the side of her face as well.

When Katya noticed Mita watching her she shook her head. “I don’t need a healer. I’ll accept a drink though.”

Mita gave her one and they all sat in silence for a time.

“If this fails we’re all going to die,” said Mita sounding almost resigned to it.

“Better that than be the playthings of a madwoman any longer, “ replied Katya. “If we have a chance to get out of here, however slim, with the Doctor’s plan we must take it.”

“Yes,” agreed Diotima.

That got her a slight head tilt from Eleanor. “Aren’t you the one who’s always counseling us to make peace with our situation?”

“I counsel facing the inevitable with dignity. If something can be changed, that is a different matter.”

“I agree with that,” said the Doctor. “And the plan will work. Really, truly I am good at this sort of thing.”

They all looked like they wanted to believe her, but barely dared.

“If it fails we won’t live long to curse you,” said Eleanor with a shrug, “or we’ll be slowly tortured to death, in which case I suppose we will.”

That led to a long spell of uncomfortable silence.

Yaz stretched out, leaning against the Doctor much as Diotima was Katya. “Tell me something, because I can’t quite figure it out. If the empress is such an insane monster, how the hell is she still in power.”

Mita and Eleanor traded looks as if deciding who should take the question.

“She’s not actually that bad an empress, politically speaking anyway. Kavu has flourished far more under her rule than it ever did her father’s. She’s a talent for collecting good advisers. She always listened to my counsel when I was on the privy council, even enacted the economic reforms I urged.”

“And then she murdered your lover and locked you up as a sex slave,” said Yaz.

“I never said she wasn’t a cruel monster, she is just smart enough to know be selective about who she hurts. As long as she confines her abuses to her own concubines within these walls no one beyond them cares.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“So is life.”

“Theodora wasn’t always a monster,” said Eleanor very soft. “She was selfish when we were girls, but...she wasn’t what she is now. I even loved her once before her eyes went cold.”

“You grew up with her didn’t you?” asked Mita.

“I was fostered in the palace, well I guess I was more of a hostage to ensure my father’s loyalty to the last emperor but you get the idea. Theodora’s father had thirty five children between his wives and concubines. Less than a third survived to adulthood and of those Theodora is the only one left. Poisoning and murdering one’s rivals for the crown is something of a tradition.”

“She killed all of her siblings?” asked the Doctor.

“Only a few actually, her elder brother got rid of most of them before she got rid of him. Mostly she just managed to stay alive until only the two of them were left. By the age of sixteen I was her bodyguard. I did a lot of things to keep us both alive I’m not proud of. When she rose to power I rose with her and so in time became her head general.”

“No wonder she only ever had three children of her own,” said Mita. “Even she can’t want to see the past repeated.”

Yaz choked on her drink, “she has children?” She’d have sooner believed a dalek capable of love.

“Three daughters. She mostly keeps them out of the public eye. She had her wife carry them for her through the use of Savian egg splicing technology. The wife died giving birth to the last one.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s when she started to lose it,” added Eleanor. “I might have kept her safe from assassins long enough for her to take the throne but Elizabeth was the reason she held it. She was the most politically savvy and cutthroat woman I ever met. She wasn’t cruel, she’d have had to have a heart to be that. She was horrifyingly efficient though. I never saw the empress look afraid or overwhelmed as she did the first time she had to face the council without her wife at her side.”

“Fear has a way of twisting people,” stated Diotima.

“Only those who are weak enough to let it,” said Katya.  

“I never said she was strong,” amended Eleanor. “Just cunning and ruthless.” She took a long sip of her drink. “Although perhaps not as cunning as she was when she had her wife to advise her. Elizabeth would have urged her to execute me when I lost that battle, not lock me away as a dangerous pet. She’d have never let the empress destroy a valuable political ally like Mita just for a boute of jealousy. She certainly would have stopped her from snatching a popular philosopher beloved by the masses. I’m pretty sure she’d have ransomed Katya back to her people for a treaty long ago as well.”

“No point in speaking of what might have been. We must do what we can with the cards we have been dealt,” said Diotima.

“Do you ever stop sounding like an oracle?” asked Yaz.

The crooked nosed woman smiled and it actually reached her eyes. “No, why do you think I chose the profession I did? I’d have made for an unbearable politician.”

“Perhaps, but you will make a fine consort at my side,” Katya kissed her ear affectionately.

“Oh, you think I’ll marry you, do you?”

“I think you will before the arch of ancestors beneath the great southern sky.”

“Take me there and I will wed you.”

Soon enough the jug was empty and they all drifted off to make the best use of what might well be their last night among the living.

 

Dawn came as it always did and the day passed achingly slowly. The Doctor found that she was ill suited to waiting in her current regeneration. It was all she could do to keep from pacing the courtyard. Yaz was little better. It was all made harder because they had to act like nothing had changed. The Doctor kept her new screwdriver on her person. One of the pairs of pants that Mita had given her actually had pockets. She’d missed pockets, they were apparently a rare thing in the harem. Only the women who’d been able to pay a seamstress had clothes with pockets.

By late morning, the Doctor noticed a few unfamiliar faces among the guards. A quickly shared glance with Eleanor told her that her people had begun to move into place. She noticed the same among a few of the servants and suspected they were Mita’s allies.

She slipped away briefly to go back to Mita’s room and call Ryan and Graham on the radio again. Everything was in place. Things were going too well. That made her nervous.

She arrived back in the courtyard just as the empress entered it. With anger in her heart the Doctor bowed with the rest of the women. She’d once, when she was very young, sworn she would never bow down to a tyrant again. The fact that she’d lived to be an old Time Lord was evidence of how she had learned to make exceptions.  

The empress called Amelie to her side and the omega went to her with downcast eyes. The Doctor’s stomach tightened. This was going to be a problem. She needed Amelie to be in the harem when everything began or the rescue wasn’t going to work. The plan was already in motion though and too many people were depending on her to stop things.

Distantly she heard the empress say to her favorite concubine, “who else should we play with.”

“I want only you my empress,” her voice was as dead as autumn leaves.

“Mita perhaps? You’re actually friends with her aren't you?”

“If that is your wish.”

“What of the alpha’s pretty mate? You liked when she touched you during your heat.”

Yaz was on the other side of the courtyard, where she had been sitting with Mita. At the empress's words her breath grew shallow with fear. More than fear for herself, she knew she was too far from the Doctor to stop her if she tried to protect her and that wasn’t going to end well for either of them.

“I don’t want another woman’s mate,” said Amelie quickly.

The empress didn’t listen to her. “How noble of you but I have no such qualms.”

“Please, they were kind to me during my heat. I don’t want to see either of them hurt. If you touch the alpha’s mate she’ll become aggressive like the last alpha did. I don’t want what happened to Lillian happening to the Doctor. I can’t face going back to having unattended heats.” She was trying to be cajoling but she was too upset for it to really work.

“You overstep your place,” snapped the empress and the omega flinched and fell silent. “Guards bring the new girl.”  

The moment the guards moved towards Yaz, the Doctor was on her feet. “No!”

Katya and Eleanor were close enough to grab her.

“Be silent, you’ll make things worse for your mate,” Eleanor hissed in her ear.

The Doctor was past caring when she saw the guards grab her unresisting mate. She struggled to break free from the two warriors’ steely grips.  “No! I won’t let her hurt Yaz I won’t.”

In her desperation she managed to elbow Eleanor in the gut but Katya twisted the blond woman's arm behind her back and forced her to the ground.

“Forgive me Doctor,” she whispered. “We need you too much for you to die right now.”

The Doctor was down but she hadn’t lost her voice. “Empress, if you want someone to hurt take me instead. I’ll do anything you want just leave Yaz alone.”

The empress looked very amused, “I can already make you do anything I want, you’ve nothing to bargain with little alpha. You had best learn a bit of humility before I cease to find your definace cute.”

The Doctor growled low and deep. “I will destroy you if you touch her.”

For half an instant the empress actually seemed intimidated and then something cold and hungry filled her face. “Guards, bind her hands and bring her along as well. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her yet but I want her to see what I do to her mate first.”

Then a lot of things happened all at once. A huge explosion rocked the entire palace as the western wing went up in flames. It was currently under construction and empty as it was a festival day, which had made it very easy for their allies to set the charges.

The empress stumbled and Amelie caught her. In one swift motion she drew a bit of broken glass wrapped in cloth from her pocket and slashed her throat. It had not been part of the Doctor’s plan, but it had always been part of Amelie’s.

“This is for Lillian.”

The first cut didn’t kill her and the stronger woman tried to pull free.

The former pirate had too good a grip on shirt. She struck again, even as the empress's blood made the glass slippery and caused it to cut her own hand. “and this is for me.”

Her tormentor slumped in her arms but she struck again. “And this is for every woman you have ever hurt for your own sick amusement.”

The entire courtyard devolved into chaos.

“Move! Move! Move!” yelled the Doctor springing to her feet, already drawing her sonic.

The actual guards didn’t put up much of a fight when they saw the empress go down, they put up even less of one when the fake guards and servants turned on them.

Yaz easily twisted away from the guard that had a hand on her arm, jabbing her hard in the ribs for good measure. She ran to the Doctor’s side, where the others were gathering. The Doctor grabbed her, kissed her once, and together they ran for the gate.

The sonic snapped the electronic lock open. The two guards that had taken them to and from the harem before took one look at the Doctor and her allies and then got out of the way.

They ran down that corridor and then another. Up ahead a door was flung open by another woman in a guards uniform, although she had the look of a soldier. “General Eleanor, this way general!”

They went down into the winding laberything of servants hallways and then there was another door and another woman guiding them and they were running through dark tunnels.

“I love the running. I love it.” The Doctor told Yaz.

“Your a bloody lunatic,” laughed Yaz breathlessly. She felt freer than she had in days, even with death at her heels.

“You love me for it.”

“Damn right I do.”

They emerged into the light and were greeted by the hissing wheeze of the TARDIS materializing. The Doctor was so glad she’d taught her companions some TARDIS operation basics. She didn’t know why she hadn’t done it before. It really made things so much easier.

Getting everyone to run into what appear to be a small box proved slightly difficult but she managed and then they were hopping away from the burning palace to safety.

…

 

Truth be told, there was a part of the Doctor that would have liked to set fire to more than just an empty part of the palace. Something dark and powerful inside of her ached to stand in the ashes of Kavu. She’d lived with that part of herself since the beginning and unlike Missy she very seldom gave it free reign.

The temptation to simply drop off their allies, take Amelie, and go was even stronger then the first impulse. Let the people of Kavu face the chaos that would follow the death of their empress on their own. She had little love for a society that permitted things like the slave auction house.

She was the Doctor though and she knew that when chaos reigned it was always the weakest and most vulnerable who suffered. Her twelfth self had had a very eloquent speech on the whole matter of being kind and never cruel. She lacked his theatrics but she was still the same person.

She hadn’t planned for the empress to die although she couldn’t say that she was anything but deeply glad about the death. That didn’t change the fact that the empress had died during her escape and that made everything that followed her responsibility.

Somewhat to her surprise, even if it was mostly for their own reasons, several of her new allies agreed to help when she told them her new plan. Once the flames had died out they went back. She couldn’t teleport the TARDIS directly into the palace but a certain other escape tunnel ran well past the edges of the building’s forcefield. She parked the TARDIS in the tunnel and waited, leaning against the door. It wasn’t long before an old woman and three dark haired girls hurried down the tunnel.

The moment they saw the big blue box the four people froze. The old woman shoved the girls behind herself.  

“Don’t hurt them please, they’re just girls.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“Then let us pass,” the oldest girl’s dark eyes were blown wide with fear but she kept a firm grip on her littlest sisters hand and her head held high. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen, the same age as the Doctor’s own daughter.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the Doctor.

The girl had a blaster in her hand and aimed so fast the Doctor barely saw the movement. “Yes you will.”

“Put that down before you hurt someone.”

“Don’t think I won’t shoot you.”

With a sigh the Doctor drew her sonic and buzzed it. The empress’s eldest daughter yelped and dropped her weapon as it grew hot in her hands. She took a half step back, shielding the smallest girl with her own body.

From that action alone, the Doctor knew that she’d made the right decision. The girls eyes were fierce and a wild but they lacked her mother’s madness. If fear always made her protect those smaller than herself, as it did in that moment, then she would have the strength to do what needed to be done.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the Doctor?”

“Who?”

The Time Lady’s face split into a wide smile, “Just the Doctor but you can think of me as a fairy godmother.”

“What do you want?”

“To put you on your mother’s empty throne before all of Kavu burns.”

“I can’t go back, my mother’s dead and her enemies will murder my sisters and me.”

“I’ve brought you four allies who can prevent that.”

She moved away from the door of the TARDIS and knocked on it once. Four women emerged.

General Eleanor, Counselor Mita, and Diotima each bowed formally. Princess Katya merely offered a slight nod of her head.

The girl looked confused. “A fallen general, a disgraced council woman, a philosopher, and and a captured southern princess, what the hell can they do for me?” Apparently she did know who they were.

“Princess Isabella, there are still many in the military who are loyal to me. I can bring at least half of it to your side,” said the general.

“I still have allies on the council. I can convince most of them to back you,” said the politician.

“I can write eloquently and legitimize your rule. I can bring you the backing of the university and the cities intellectuals. I may even be able to get you popular support as well,” promised the philosopher.

The southern warrior spoke last. “I can give you a peace treaty with the southern tribes. You’ll have a much easier time solidifying your rule if you don’t have to spend half your nations revenues on a drawn out war.”

The girl eyed Princess Katya very carefully. “The first three I understand. They want their positions back. You though, you’re my countries enemy. Why would you help me?”

“Because while my people will fight to their dying breath I know they are losing. I have no wish to see my mother’s house burned or my sisters slain. Your mother would never negotiate but you’re in a weak enough position you have no choice.”

Princess Isabella considered all of this. “Half the military and council, the support of a few impoverished students and a promise of peace might not be enough to keep my throat from being slit.”

“No, but how far do you think your going to get with two little girls and your old nurse in tow. You’ve your mother’s face and you are sure to be recognized. You’ll never make it off world, much less out of the capital before someone recognizes you and tries to use you for their own ends,” said the Doctor.

“Isn’t that what your doing?”

“Yes.” To her credit the Doctor did sound a little ashamed. “And I really am sorry about it. You’re not going to get a better offer. The next person who finds you won’t come bearing help.”

The girl looked at her and then she glanced back at the five year old who had her hand clasped so tightly, the timid nine year old clutching the nurses hand looked just as frightened.

“I don’t have a choice, do I? This is the only way I can protect them, isn’t it.”

“Yes.” Something knotted in the Doctor’s gut. She knew perfectly well that there was another choice. She could take all three girls and the old woman onto the TARDIS, take them so far away that no assassin’s blades could ever find them. If she did that though, Kavu would collapse into civil war and so many, many other little girls would die.

The uncrowned empress straightened her back. “I am my mother’s daughter and it is my fate to take up her crown. I will not flee it. Tell me what I must do.”

 

When she went back into the TARDIS she found Yaz sitting on the console staring at the screen. She had her arms wrapped around herself. Amelie was standing beside her looking equally troubled, at some point Graham had found her a blanket to wrap around her shoulders.

As the Doctor began to pull levers, Yaz asked. “Did we just put an orphaned fifteen year old girl in charge of an empire?”

“Yes. It was the best option.”

“She’s Shiva’s age. Would you put Shiva in charge of an empire?”

For half an instant the Doctor saw her daughter in her mind’s eye, fierce and joyful. She and Missy hadn’t been able to protect her from everything but they’d done the best they could. There was no fear in Shiva’s eyes. Her life had had plenty of small hurts and disappointments but she had never yet been wounded too deeply to heal. The oldest Shiva she had yet met was still so much younger than the girl she’d just left outside the TARDIS.

“Not but I don’t have to. We left Princess Isabella with four wise women to advise her, that’s the best we can do for her or Kavu.”

“More than that hellhole deserves,” spat Amelie, wrapping her blanket tighter. Her right hand was tightly bandaged from where she’d cut it while stabbing the empress. “Still the other women in the harem were kind to me and I wish them the best. If they are willing to put that bitches daughter on the throne to protect their home then I have to respect that.”

The Doctor looked up from the consul. “If it helps, I am about to go free all the slaves in the auction house and burn the place to the ground. Wanna come?”

“Gods yes.”    

 

They all still smelled slightly of smoke when they stepped out of the TARDIS into Star Chaser’s larger cargo hold.

Amelie held it together until Marry Ann opened her arms to her. She collapsed into the pirate captain’s arms sobbing desperately.

“You looked for me. I gave up, I gave up so long ago but you looked for me and when you found me you sent someone to save me.”

“Of course we did. You’re family and we don’t leave people behind on Star Chaser.”

That just made the omega cry harder.

Eventually Mary Anne led her off to somewhere more quiet. Nearly the entire crew was waiting in the corridor, eager to see their lost shipmate again but Mary Anne sent them all away with a wave of her hand.

“Shove off you lot, you’re worse than a bunch of puppies. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you all again when she’d had a chance to rest.”

It was some time later that a very tired looking Mary Anne came to bid the Doctor and her friends goodbye. Ryan had used the time to find the cute mechanic turned cook from their last adventure. Graham had been dragged off to the rec-room by a large pack of older pirates. He had given them his _Call the Midwife_ filled tablet before he had left the ship last time. They had apparently watched the entire series and wanted to know more about twentieth century earth. Graham was more than happy to oblige, especially once someone fetched him a cup of tea and some biscuits.

Mary Anne made good on her promise of bad wine, pouring Yaz and the Doctor each a metal cup of it as they sat on the crates in the cargo bay. There was no invitation to her room this time and it was clear from the slump of her shoulders that sex was the last thing on her mind.

“I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You did promise me a geisha bobble head doll.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She stood to reach into a nearby crate. “How many do you want? For bringing back Amelie, you can have all of them if you like.”

The Doctor started to grin like a child at Christmas and Yaz had a horrifying mental image of every surface of the TARDIS covered in the wobbly things.

“One, she only wants one.”

The Doctor looked slightly disappointed but still smiled brightly when she received her single bobble head from Mary Anne. She turned it over in her hands for a moment and then her smile faded as a thought occurred to her. “Listen, Amelie is a strong woman but she’s been through a lot. It might be best not to leave her alone for a time. Sometimes the first few days of safety are the hardest.”

Mary Anne sunk back down onto the crate beside the Doctor and Yaz. “Amelie isn’t the first traumatized omega we’ve cared for. Half the omegas on this ship escaped the breeding camps and one of the alphas is an arena survivor. Plenty of the betas have been through different versions of hell. Don’t worry, we know how to take care of her.”

There wasn’t much to be said after that. They finished their wine and Mary Anne told them to come back some time under better circumstances. The Doctor and Yaz promised that they would. They used the ship’s intercom to call Graham and Ryan back to the cargo bay and then they set off.

“So where to?” asked the Doctor.

Her companions all traded a quick look. While Graham and Ryan hadn’t been captured waiting and worrying in uncertainty while they tried to figure out a way to rescue the Doctor and Yaz had taken its toll.

“Can we go back to Sheffield for a bit?” said Graham, “I wouldn’t mind sleeping in my own bed for a night.”

“Same,” agreed Ryan.

“And I haven’t seen my family in a bit.” said Yaz.

The landed back in Sheffield and with a few worried glanced Graham and Ryan left them to it. Yaz made no immediate move to leave.

“Your heading home too aren't you?” asked the Doctor.

Yaz wrapped her arms around her lover. “Home is with you darling. I said I wanted to see my family.” Yaz kissed the tip of her nose. “We’re going to go take a really, really long nap and shower in our own bathroom, even if all the rubber duckies in there do weird me out. Then we’re going to go pop around to my folks place for tea like I promised them we would this week. It’s past time I told them I’m moving out.”

“Are you sure darling?”

“I haven’t slept in my childhood bed in weeks and Sonya pretty much took over my closet for storage space ages ago.

“It’s a big step to take after...well after the week we’ve had.”

“I’m done putting off things that matter. If anything these last few days showed me that.”

The Doctor drew her as close as she could. “So does this mean you’re moving in?”

“Yea. If you’ll have me.”

“Of course. Do we get to rent a u-haul? That’s what humans do when they move isn’t it? Or at least lesbian humans? Your bisexual though, can you still rent a u-hual?”

Yaz dissolved into giggles. She loved this woman so much, even if she couldn’t always tell when she genuinely didn’t understand human culture and when she was being silly. “Your rambling my love. Anyway, I don’t have that much stuff. You can help me carry a few boxes tomorrow.”

“I’m so happy.”

“I know. Now come and lie down,” and they did.


End file.
